Bringing the World into your Kitchen

Month: October 2012

Have you ever heard the saying “All the goats jump onto leaning trees”? (“Na pochyłe drzewo wszystkie kozy skaczą.”) It’s Polish. The saying means goats know to make due with what they are given – they leap to take advantage of the opportunity that presents itself. Real practical, those goats. We should be more like them. Which brings me to our menu. This week, this beautiful week of October, we are given ruddy apples harvested fresh from the orchard, comforting potatoes with dirt still clinging to their rough skins, and the last cucumbers off the vine (it’s Oklahoma, what can I say). It’s the perfect set up for a Polish feast. Will you join us? All recipes and the meal review will be posted throughout the week. White Cucumber Salad | Mizeria [Recipe] Mizeria means misery in Polish, but this creamy (but slightly sweet and sour) salad is anything but. A refreshing combination of cucumbers, sour cream, dill and a hit of vinegar and sugar. Cheese & Potato Pierogi [Recipe] Comfort food to the rescue. These traditional pierogi …

Among the cool, rolling hills of Central Europe, which stretch like green tomcats beneath the blue sky, lays Poland … where waters run clear from the city’s industrious lip, all the way to the edge of her spiny mountains. Situated between Germany and Belarus, the best Polish food can be summed up by that which is hunted, foraged, or fished. Under the filtered forest canopy, mushrooms are not just dinner, but a hobby. Fish, straight from the river, is a way of life (think herring, carp, pike, perch, eel, and sturgeon). There’s no denying the local love of Pierogi – a dumpling filled with anything from potatoes and cheese to sauerkraut. You might enjoy it fried in butter and onions, served with kielbasa sausage or simply with just a dollop of sour cream. Speaking of which, sour cream is a “go-to” in Poland, as popular as ketchup here in the United States. You’ll even find this cool, tangy milk product in everything from pie crust to cucumber salad to pierogi (and this time, I don’t mean the …

We all have mountains to climb (or, since this is the Philippines’ week at the Global Table, we all have volcanoes to climb). To cook the Philippines, I rolled two dozen lumpia shanghai, simmered pork adobo with a house-cleansing formula of vinegar and bay leaf, and slurped on bubbly, ooey, gooey sago at gulaman. And none of it was easy. Every step of the way, I felt like I was trudging on the steep side of a cold volcano. Until I got to the vista. You see, this week’s cooking was made difficult by the fact that I had something else on my mind: I was scheduled to speak in front of 350 people at the Global Vision Dinner presented by the Tulsa Global Alliance. What an honor! What a treat! And, considering I’d never spoken to more than 35 people at one time, I was incredibly nervous. My shaking hands and bad dreams told me, this was an opportunity for growth if I ever there was one. So, I practiced the speech walking home …